WOW !!!!!!What about this??? I never knew this could happen in Holland and when I got a message/question from France  from Juliette , if I had seen it , I could only say ” NO, are you sure it was in Holland “?
MORNING GLORY over our Northerly Provence Friesland on February 26 2016. And yesterday again !!!!!
Picture Photo: Annemiek de Boers via Reiner van den Berg / Severe Weather in Belgium
By the way the North of Holland [Friesland, Groningen and the Wadden Islands] had the pleasure last weekend of seeing the Northern Lights as well.

———-
Lake Keepit !

The NSW State Comps are over and what great comps they were!!!
On Thursday they continued with day 5, with a 3.30 AAT in club and 15 m. whilst open and 18 m. went for 3 hours.
So still good weather. Though it was a tricky day with thunderstorms and large shadows over the TP’s 1 and 2, according to Paul [Dickson from the Hunter Valley] in his LS 3, who won another day with 368 km; “Didn’t go far enough into these TP’s so maxed out the last one & came in 5 min under.” .

Good to see local hero Jenny [Ganderton ] is flying so well in her Mosquito. With the WWGC in Lake Keepit in 2019 this is already great practice for her. She won 2 days and finished overall as runner up!!

Brad [Edwards] arrived in Lake Keepit,….. he is a very busy guy but loves his soaring, so when possible he flies …..and he straight away  won 1000 points for his first flight . His JS 1 flew 422 km. in time 3.03.59.
Tom was runner up with 419 km. in time 3.12. Of course you remember Brad was world champion in Uvalde in 1991.

Flying day 6 was last Friday on the 4th of March, another good day with great clouds and light winds, but again TP’s with over-development and rain .
In club the 4th “win”  for Paul, who has a real good lead overall. He flew 454 km in his LS 3 during a 4 hour AAT with a speed of 112.62 km./h.
Unfortunately for Jenny, she lost 300 points on Paul.
In 18 m./open it was Tom again , this time he flew over the set 520 km with a speed of 142.57 km./h.
The 2 HC pilots Bruce and Andrew[who did not fly the day before at some comps in Australia they  “work” with lay-days, meaning you can skip one day] ] followed and on spot 2 was Brad with 134 km./h.

Last flying day!March 5 yes the beginning of autumn,…and what week they had in Lake Keepit!
On the last day Paul was more than 200 points ahead on Jenny in club class , so more or less a “won race” for him, but,…nothing is assured till after the last scores are in .
The 3 hour AAT could spoil it,….. but no it did n’t. 5th Win in a row for Paul so clearly the NSW State champion with 6698 points. Runner up Jenny with 6518 points. Good on her!!!

In 15 m. a 3.30 AAT kept the 7 pilots in this class busy enough. Mick Webster achieved his 4th win in a row and with that he was the new 15 m. NSW State Champion; 6485 points.Good to see Kerry Claffey [ASW 28] on spot 3 with 5992 points.

In 18 m./open class Tom leads Bruce on the last but one day, with more than 200 points, but as Bruce flies HC it is Matthew Atkinson in the Ventus 2cxa/18 m.who is runner up with 600 points less, so no worries here either for Tom who won till now 4 days!!!!

AND Tom won the last day as well; 480 km. during a 3.30 AAT and a total of 6763 points . Matthew lost 275 points on the last day but it did not harm him too much,  he remained runner up with 5859 points. In between Bruce had ,as HC pilot, 6475 points.
So Tom is the well deserved 2016 NSW State CHAMPION .

Flying an ASG 29 /18 m. , Schleicher of course shared Tom’s happiness and this picture.

More news from Australia.

Not competing in Keepit, but having a day-time-to-fly from not- that- far- away Kingaroy, David Jansen showed a great autumn flight with 783 km. [500 FAI triangle[] in his ASG 29 e/18m.

I heard that Tocumwal this week enjoys a full week of 39 and 40 dgr. !!!!!It remains hot down under. My non- flying- friends over there are “sick of the heat”.
Great weather to fly though and several did on Monday with flights over 500 km. as 528 [ DG 600/17 m.] , 576 [JS 1] and 643 km. [600 FAI triangle in ASH 26] and as always Ingo , flying his Discus, landed last for the day, with 734 km.  , [700 FAI triangle] under his belt. And yesterday another top-of-the-OLC-list -spot with 678 km.[600FAI traingle]
Don’t forget the days are getting shorter and shorter over there! Great job also for Terry in his ASH 26 with this time 704 km.

As Francesco from Corowa said;” it’s autumn and every day is a bonus.”
Now the season is over he can finally fly by himself and he took the ASG 32 MI yesterday for “a ride” ;512 km.
His OLC-comment ; “Not as good as I expected. The first 2 hours the thermals did not break trough the strong inversion. It was hot in the cockpit.To the west it was perfect with climbs up to 5.5 m/s. but I lost too much speed in the first 2 hrs.”
The WEST was “used” by Terry [ASH 26] flying from Tocumwal;704 km.[664 FAI triangle]
Also for fun- flights there was time in the weekend.
Swiss Chris flew on the 5th in his ASW 27  586 km. And from Benalla German pilot Fabian Gaida flew in a Speed Astir 562 km.

And,…This year ,….. and  I was there at that moment,……., tuggy Bruce got back into gliding and solo in a Blanik and this weekend he tested his skills with Ingo in the IS 28 and later SOLO again.

Tuggy Bruce with Ingo smiling as always at an airfield. He never ever is bored  he told me this year, even not after so many years of flying.
Picture shared by SRGC.

———-

Not only Australia enjoys great early autumn weather also South Africa showed just over and under 500 km. flights from Orient.One pilot Hanno Du Toit even flew his first 500 km. Good on him !!!!
Cloud base was 4000 m. not bad !!!

———

News from Mount Beauty from the ALPINE FLYER:
” The Alpine Coaching and Regatta Week from 21st to 27th February was an enormous success this year, thanks to the excellent organisation by VSA President Ian Grant and his team of helpers. Of course the excellent soaring conditions most days also helped”.
Several pilots I know, visited there. Always a good week.

———–

News for ” lovers of the St Libelle” .
—–” Yes, it is true! A Libelle Gathering will be held in Australia in late 2016 at the Bendigo Gliding Club, in central Victoria.See the link below for details.

http://www.bendigogliding.org.au/Main/libellegathering

Spread the word, it will be awesome ! If you can let any of your Libelle members and friends know it would be much appreciated.”—-

———-

Benalla 1984.

AustraGlide ’84 was a ABC documentary on very high level, featuring Ingo [Renner], Kees [Musters], George [Schuit] , Eric ” Herbie”  Moser , Peter [Griffiths] and others. Have seen it so many times, still love it!!

austraglide 84

—” This is an ABC documentary about the 1984 gliding competition in Benalla, Australia. It was the largest gathering of gliders in Australia ever, and a precursor to the world championships in 1987.”

When the link does n’t work you can find it on youtube.com  AustraGlide 84. Enjoy, it’s worth while looking at. It’s really the past with interesting weather forecast, camera’s for the TP’s and pilots as Ingo, who still are icons.
Also featuring Erik Moser, Kees Musters and George Schuit.
With Benalla 2017 around the corner it’s nostalgia on a high level.

Talking about this  I got info about the landing and start of the Albatross on Lake Boga in 1998, featuring Peter ” Griffo” Griffiths and George Schuit. Great video as well. Enjoy!!!

———–

Girl POWER!!!!!

Introducing Kathrin’s new sales manager in a special way!
Picture from Mai 2013,  shared now by Pilotessa Design-com

Dear friends, it’s a big honor for me to introduce my new INTERNATIONAL SALES MANAGER: Mss Peggy Walentin!

Peggy is in the aviation business since 1994. Shortly after she became a pilot, obtained the aerobatic license and got the flight instructor licence for power planes! But she is not only a pilot.

From 1999 to 2015 Peggy Walentin has flown more than 600 displays as a wing-walker! She was the only one in Germany. The Boeing Stearman of “Peggy’s Wingwalkers Team” with the beautiful design of Mirco Pecorari is her own.

———–

And when I am sharing video links here is another one from my friends Karin [Wiesenthal] and Markus [Geisen] about their 1370 km. flight from Kuruman in South Africa on January 2 and shared by Schempp Hirth.
Dad Hans flew that day in his DG 800/18 m.  a great 1.246 km. flight.

https://www.facebook.com/schempphirth/videos/943090759092408/?fref=nf

———–

In the March/April issue of Gliding International I read a lot of news again.
The Magazine opened with a few pages on the
—–SHARK. About the 304 S [Shark], the 304 TS [Twin Shark] , 304 C [WASP] and the 304 CZ a single seat flapped 15 m. glider.
—–The official accident report involving the the New Zealanders in Namibia in 2014 is very informative and finishes with safety recommendations.
—-Ramy Yanetz explored in 2015 the Western USA [400 hours of flying in one year !] and Elke Fuglsang-Petersen writes about it with great pictures from Ramy.
—-IGC Global membership Survey.
—-About the wave -heaven  Argentina, by Aussie glider pilot dr Rick Agnew.
And much more as,….lot’s of World Aviation news for glider pilots and 18 quick three-liners;  one of them with interesting results on the question did your gliding in 2015 increase, decrease or stay the same compared to 2014?

———-

And to finish an interesting picture shared by Boerje and a lesson -in-life for those who are going to fly in Scandinavia.

With the message : ” Gliding in North part of Sweden. Learn how to canoeing“.

———-

 Not long ,….March 25 till April 2 ….and we will follow the at this stage 95 pilots in Nitra “fighting ” for the Pribina Cup in 4 classes and MAYBE 5 ;when there are enough participants in the 13.5 m class there will be 5.
The season is about to begin.

Cheers Ritz